Fans know—and love—him as Caleb Rivers, Hanna’s love from the wrong side of the tracks on Pretty Little Liars. Caleb’s smart, snarky, and super-sweet, and it leaves us swooning. And ABC Family knows when to double-down on a good thing, which is why Tyler Blackburn, the actor who plays Caleb, scored his own spin-off this season with Ravenswood, a dark drama about a small town (just down the road from Rosewood, of course) where a curse has marked—and bonded—generation after generation. And troubled Caleb discovers he just might be at the center of it all.

Parade.com caught up with Blackburn to chat about the curse on Ravenswood, shooting in New Orleans and, of course, what the future holds for Hanna and Caleb!

Fans are going to miss you in Rosewood. Give us a bit of insight on what we can expect from the Halloween episode that takes you to Ravenswood.

There’s a lot that goes on in that episode. The girls have followed this trail of clues toward Allison’s disappearance. But then on top of that, Caleb goes to help the girls, and while there, he meets a girl named Miranda. And he helps her in Ravenswood. And Hanna’s there to witness some of it. It’s a whole secondary storyline that’s going on between Miranda and Caleb. I’m not going to say exactly what happens—but it’s something major. It even makes Hanna agree to let Caleb stay in Ravenswood to help Miranda. And while he’s there, he realizes there’s something that connects him very deeply to this town.

Caleb has found his dad, but he doesn’t know much about his family. Are we going to learn more about that?

Yeah, his ancestry is linked to Ravenswood. There is so much that is unknown about his past, and he uncovers some of his family history in Ravenswood. I can say that there is a curse on the town of Ravenswood—one that’s been around for generations—and Caleb is tied to this curse.

Caleb finds himself at the center of a curse on Ravenswood. (ABC Family)

In Ravenswood, there’s an element of the supernatural. How in-depth is that going to get?

Very. It’s freaky. Big time. It’s creepy, it’s really creepy. We’ve gotten notes from the network saying, “You guys, this is a bit too scary.” It’s horror. There are ghosts. It’s not just, “Things-that-go-bump-in-the-night.” We’re grappling with the unknown here. It’s not light. There are many deaths or near-death experiences. It’s kind of the material for nightmares. It’s a different kind of dark than PLL. You’re up against something you can’t really see—you don’t really know what it is. You enter a room and you don’t know if you’re going to live or die, because you don’t know what’s stalking you. That’s scary.

You guys shot some of the show in New Orleans.

We’re shooting here till the end of November. It’s definitely a party city, but when you’re working crazy hours, you can’t party too much. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so it’s been a transition for me, for sure. There’s definitely like a heaviness about this whole city—and it’s not just the humidity. It’s the history. In the French Quarter, and especially in the cemeteries, I felt like static electricity. You feel slightly paranoid and a bit out of breath—at least that’s what I experienced. There’s just so much that has gone on here, a lot of debauchery. I went to a bar and it was founded by a pirate in the 1600s—it’s like the oldest bar in the country. It was a trip. It’s so cool though.

Shooting in New Orleans, what can we expect from the town of Ravenswood?

It’s a small town in Pennsylvania, like Rosewood, but it’s a little bit more of a ghost town. It’s known that Ravenswood has a eerie history. Its inhabitants know it. There’s a character on the show whose job is that he runs the funeral home. It’s very Six Feet Under.

Twitter went nuts about Haleb, as soon as they found out you were leaving. Are they sticking together?

Hanna and Caleb don’t break up. They do a little bit of long-distance. Hanna’s pretty supportive of this mission. But obviously once Caleb sets foot in Ravenswood and starts exploring this mystery, it complicates things. So I’m not going to say that everything is perfect for Haleb. It’s not a fairy tale anymore. So you won’t see us making out—but they’re sticking together for now.

I imagine down the line we may see a bit of a triangle?

In a way. It’s not what you would expect. It’s definitely a unique situation.

Hmmm… so I guess the question is, is Caleb making out with anyone else?

Yes and no. I really can’t say that for sure. There have been some flashbacks to the early 1900s, and there’s been some smooching there. But let’s leave it at that. You’ll have to watch and find out.

AMG/Parade Digital

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